I guess he'd rather see American choke on dirty air than (further) imperil his evaporating re-election chances - at least until his hoped-for second Immaculation inauguration:
U.S. President Barack Obama put a stop Friday to new rules that would limit smog pollution, unexpectedly reversing course on a key policy measure after businesses argued it would kill jobs and cost them billions of dollars.
Obama said the decision to withdraw a clean-air initiative by the Environmental Protection Agency was part of an effort to reduce regulatory burdens for business.
Um, no, actually, it's part of an effort to rebuild polling numbers that have him halfway into his electoral grave already. And it's not because he's cowed by Big Business, but because his economy has gotten so bad and jobs have become such an inescapable Damocles Sword over his re-election head that he can no longer afford to just blow off the economic mass-destruction his Marxist-Alinskyist policies are designed to wreak.
Frankly, this is the first economy-related development in the past three years I've seen that actually merits use of the adverb "unexpectedly".
And when "businesses argued" that the EPA smog crackdown "would kill jobs and cost them billions," they weren't hyperbolizing:
The initial standards, proposed near the start of last year, would limit ground-level ozone, or smog. The proposal was stronger than standards set by the Bush administration in 2008, which environmentalists blasted as less aggressive than government scientists had recommended.
Under the rule, factories and oil, natural gas and power generators would be forced to cut emissions of nitrogen oxides and other chemicals called volatile organic compounds. Smog forms when those chemicals react with sunlight.
Dow Chemical has said the rule could cost as much as $90 billion. Several companies including Dow have urged the administration to delay the rule until 2013.
Interestingly enough, and not remotely coincidentally IMHO, a particular state was a central target of the EPA's regulatory blitzkrieg. See if you can guess which GOP presidential front-runner would be most in the cross-hairs:
The Energy Reliability Council of Texas on Thursday issued their impace assessment response to the EPA's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, imposed in July, compliance demanded by January 2012.
ERCOT manages and operates the entire Texas power grid. If you haven't noticed, Texas and a good part of the central US has been gripped in the worst heat wave and drought since 1980. Six times this summer ERCOT has imposed "Level 2" restrictions as the power demand threatened to exceed the capabilities of the grid to supply, and large consumers who have established agreements with ERCOT were shut down to conserve power on those 108 degree days.
Level 3 is rolling blackouts....
ERCOT's assessment looked at three scenarios... I'll summarize them.
"Texas power producers will cut production from 2 to 8%. Period."
So here's what that means. Government imposed rolling blackouts.
Remember the governor of the last state to impose rolling blackouts on its population in the name of environmental purity? Here's a hint: He was the pathetic hack (Gray Davis) who got recalled and replaced in 2003 by some obscure nobody named....Arnold Schwartzeneggar.
Ponder that for a moment, folks: Californians, arguably the most hopelessly leftwingnut state in the country, sacked their Donk governor because he carried out the fondest dictatorial, extremist wet dreams of the greenstremist cadre, which came directly and conspicuously at their expense.
Now it's true that Texas would never be in danger of flipping "blue" under any circumstances, much less the ones that will prevail in 2012. But it wouldn't be just the Lone Star state that would be decimated by the EPA's regulatory hammer & sickle, either. Dave In Texas concludes:
I suspect the unpopularity of government imposed blackouts was a bridge too far for Obama. But it won't be if he survives the 2012 election. It'll be a feature, not a problem.
Also, why this is a big deal.
Because his policies, his directives to the EPA, hurt his re-election chances. They kill jobs. They piss people off with higher prices for energy and NO F*&IN access to energy.
Kinda harrowingly underscores what's at stake next November, doesn't it?
[cross-posted @ Hard Starboard]
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